Film Review: 52 Tuesdays (15) (Australia 2013) (Director: Sophie Hyde), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Friday 21.08.2015, 20:15

This is by the same director who made 'Life in Movement' (2011), the excellent documentary about the choreographer Tanja Liedtue. Though I only became aware of this fact after I became interested in seeing this film due to it's personal relevance to my life. 

52 Tuesdays focuses upon a mother transitioning to be male and how this impacts on his teenage daughter. The title refers to their agreement to meet every Tuesday throughout the first year of the transition, while the daughter stays with her father. 

I will get my one tiny quibble out the way, it did feel ever so slightly long. Having said this I felt it was a beautifully acted, balanced and considered film. If people find it difficult to define what exploitative is, they should watch this and then consider what would be the polar opposite to it, and they would be on the money. I feel quite overwhelmed that there is such a positive though complex portrayal of this nature publicly available. 

I found the film very moving, though as I said at the start, I have to acknowledge how personal this is to me. Having said this, I would find it hard to imagine any decent person seeing this as anything other than a profoundly humane and engaging film. For the average punter I would still give this ten out of ten, though due to how affecting I found it, I don't feel I can give it a rating reflecting my feelings towards this. In a completely different way, I see this as being just as important a film as my favourite film of last year ('Ida' 2013). 

I'm sat feeling and thinking I should try to say more. I don't feel I really can without getting silly, I think this is more of a reflection of how positively affected I am by this. Thank you Sophie Hyde and everyone who worked on this.   

Film Review: The Diary of a Teenage Girl (18) (U.S.A. 2015) (Director: Marielle Heller), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Thursday 20.08.2015, 20:45

The film is set in 1976 San Francisco, a time oft referred to as sexually permissive. British actress Bel Powley plays the teenager of the title, Mini, who at the age of 15 is going through her period of sexual awakening. Kristen Wiig plays her hedonistic flake of a mother and Alexander Skarsgard plays her mother's highly dodgy boyfriend. 

I felt that the film did a good job of capturing the nievity and sweet innocence of a child at this stage of adolescence, without falling into the typical American trap of having to make it overly sweet and mawkishly sentimental. It was also refreshing in that the only character who appears to do any learning is Mini who appears to learn from her various experimenting (and to an extent betrayals) in terms of sex (with males and females) and drugs. By the end of the film Mini is more self-assured and is no longer desperately reliant upon the displays of interest from others. 

The film has some very frank and funny passages without becoming overly explicit. I don't really understand why this needed to have an 18 certificate, as I don't feel it contains anything that a 15 year old would not be able to handle, and there may even be some 15 year old's who would benefit from seeing this. 

A very enjoyable watch and recommended, particularly for the younger viewer. 

Rating: 08/10.  

Film Review: A Girl At My Door (18) (South Korea 2014) (Director: July Jung) (Korean with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Thursday 20.08.2015, 18:10

This is a rarity from South Korea, being a film by a female director that also contains elements about homosexuality. The film begins with  a female police chief arriving at a new post in a remote fishing village. The film contains themes regarding child abuse and how communities make allowances for this sort of thing, alcoholism and the manipulative prejudice directed towards someone for what could be seen as the merest public display of sexually transgressive behaviour. The film also has plot development hinge on the community assuming that if someone is homosexual then any interest they show in trying to assist someone who is younger than them and of the same sex must be sexually based. 

I felt that the film managed a very fine balance of these differing elements. I also felt that the film did a fine job of capturing the sorts of maladaptive behaviour that can be displayed by someone who has experienced verbal, physical and possibly sexual abuse for a very long time. 

The subject matters I felt to be sensitively handled and the film never veered into gratuitous sensationalising. The film also left me as a viewer with many elements to ponder. A fine piece of film making and highly recommended. 

Rating: 10/10.      

Film Review: 13 Minutes (15) (Germany 2015) (Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel) (German with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Thursday 20.08.2015, 13:15

This is a film by the director of the chilling 'Downfall' (2004), which details the story of Georg Elser who in 1939 attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler missing by 13 minutes. This is an excellently acted and in ways nuanced film which is careful to show that there were people whop supported Hitler who contained good in them and there were also people who opposed him who at the same time were not decent in how they treated others. The film was very good in showing the small community that Georg Elser came from, throughout the period of the rise of Nazism, and how the community became divided right from the start of this period. 

It was also very good in portraying how Hitler found it impossible to accept that the assassination attempt could have been the work of one man, the early seeds of what would ultimately do him in; underestimating the ability and determination of the opposition. 

This was a humane and respectful portrayal of ordinary decent German folk trying to do their best for themselves and others while not falling in line and colluding with the fascist scum. It took decades for Georg to be recognised for the resistance fighter that he was and I feel this film is a fitting tribute. A thoroughly absorbing watch and highly recommended. 

Rating: 10/10.        

Live Performance Review: Lo Real / Le Reel / The Real : Performed by Israel Galvan (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2015), Wednesday 19.08.2014 19:30, The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 

This was a performance of flamenco dance and music that I understand to concern itself with the persecution of Romany people by the German Nazis around the time of the second world war. 

The dancing was of a very high standard and felt innovative in terms of the materials used in the performance. Sadly the singing was not quite up to the same standard. More of an issue was the staging. There was what I think of as a middle section what regrettably felt impenetrable in terms of trying to understand what was being conveyed. 

The super-titles did not help much either. I tend to try to not pay too much attention to these unless it is a play where you need to engage with them. Though I was aware that there were passages not being covered by the super-titles and sections which were not in English. There was also a section of the performance which was in German which again had no super-titles. In this regard though I did afterwards wonder whether this was deliberate. The people the play focuses upon would not have understood the German being spoken at them by the Nazi invaders, so maybe this not having any translation was deliberately adding to confusion. 

The performances saving grace was the quality of the dancing, which is what I went for, it is just a shame that other elements compromised the performance. 

Rating: 7/10.      

Film Review: Best of Enemies (15) (U.S.A. 2015) (Directors: Robert Gordon & Morgan Neville), Filmhouse, Screen Three, Edinburgh, Tuesday 18.08.2015, 20:40

This is a documentary focusing upon the commentary/debates between the liberal Gore Vidal and the right-wing nutjob William F. Buckley Jr., that coincided with the 1968 Republican and Democratic conventions. This was the effort from the derided broadcaster A.B.C. Network to do something relatively innovative though cheap. The two intellectuals were known to despise one another and as the film clearly shows these exchanges descended into eloquently charming mud-slinging. 

The film was very informative about a part of U.S. broadcasting history of which I knew nothing prior to watching the film and it proposes that modern news-broadcasting debates have their roots in these exchanges from '68. I was aware of Gore Vidal and I know that I recognised the wildly gesticulating and searing Buckley though from where I cannot be sure. The film has made me curious to check out some of Vidal's writing. 

I only have one criticism, though it is not really of the film. The advertising I saw for the film listed one of the contributors as (one of my heroes) Noam Chomsky. I was already intrigued, though to have Noam contributing would have been the icing on the cake. I was a bit miffed that the only presence I could see of him was a clip of about a second or two within a collage of others who had debated with Buckley. This though is a minor quibble. The film overall was very absorbing and I found it entirely refreshing to hear two people as capable as each other, so eloquently and charmingly slagging each other.   

Rating: 09/10.      

Live Performance Review: Mark Thomas: Talking Comedy (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015) Sunday 16.08.2015 14:00 The Assembly Rooms, The Ballroom (Unreserved Seating), Edinburgh & Mark Thomas: Trespass: A Work in Progress (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015) Sunday 16.08.2015 17:00 Summerhall Festival, The Dissection Room (Unreserved Seating), Edinburgh

Talking Comedy: 

This was a one-off show which featured Mark being interviewed by someone from the University of Kent's British Stand-Up Archive. The interviewer is also someone who has known and been friends with Mark for many years. 

I have been going to see Mark perform for 19 years; he is my favourite 'comedian' and this is reflected by the fact that I have seen him perform far more often than any other spoken word performer. I don't know if this would have had appeal to someone who is not already familiar with his work though I found it very informative particularly regarding his early years. The only gripe I had was that it was only for an hour. 

Once Mark gets going with a tale it can be hard to get him to stop; exemplified by there landing up being only time for one question in the Q&A section at the end of the show, due to his rambling though interesting and informative answer. The time allowed appeared to only really touch the surface of his nearly 30 year career and I'm sure he would have been able to have easily filled a slot of twice this length without it become tiresome.  

A nice first part to my Mr. Thomas Double Bill. 

Trespass: A Work in Progress:

This is Mark's new show that focuses upon the fact that a large proportion of 'public spaces' are not really so, although we are allowed conditional access and the situation is getting worse. 

An example of this is that in London, the only land not owned by the landed gentry, the super-rich, multinationals, foreign countries or royal families, is the 'yard' outside St. Paul's Cathedral where the 'Occupy' protesters were corralled a few years back. There is shockingly intolerant behaviour being displayed by private landowners towards behaviour which they just don't care much for - even if no law has even so much as been sniffed at.

There are also a plethora of Councils who are in the process of trying to introduce new draconian laws covering the areas within urban areas that the public are allowed access to.      

The show is called a 'Work in Progress' solely to reflect the evolving nature of what he will be discussing on stage on any particular day depending upon where his mischievous actions have got to. As always with Mr. Thomas this was an informative an hugely entertaining hour with many a laugh. Still never a disappointment. 

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Talking Comedy: Rating: 09/10

Trespass: A Work in Progress: Rating: 10/10 

  

Live Performance Review: Antigone Produced By the Barbican and Les Theatres de La Ville de Luxembourg (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2015), Wednesday 12.08.2014 19:30, King's Theatre, Edinburgh

The tickets for this went on sale early, in the autumn of last year. I got my ticket with no knowledge of the play and this was solely due to it staring Julliette Binoche in the lead role. 

I found the story dense though engaging enough and the acting was solid across the board. I also appreciated the minimalist set and being a fan of the Velvet Underground, I greatly enjoyed the fact that the play closed to the strains of their classic 'Heroin'. 

I was delighted to see Julliette Binoche performing live, she did not disappoint. Even though everyone else's acting was perfectly watchable, I did feel she was a notch up on the rest. There was greater range and subtlety to her performance. Her dialogue feeling fully lived in and physical expression strangely genuine. I feel that she generally appeared to inhabit her role to a greater degree. 

She has been one of my favoured actresses for coming on 20 years, and I feel this performance exemplifies why she is regarded as one of the best actresses presently working. A heavy-going piece made a treat by Binoche's superb turn.     

Rating: 10/10. 

Live Performance Review: Life in Progress: Performed by Sylvie Guillem (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2015), Sunday 09.08.2014 19:30, The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 

This is a performance I attended upon recommendations from my sister and aunt. Sylvie is a French Ballerina of world renown who throughout 2015 is on a world wide final tour at the age of 50. The programme contained four different dance pieces mixing old and newly commissioned. One of the pieces did not appear to contain Sylvie in any way and I did wonder why it was included. Having said this all four pieces were of a very high standard. Sylvie herself was captivating and remarkable to watch in terms of strength, flexibility and fluidity. An absorbing and uplifting treat. 

Rating: 10/10.     

Film Review: Maidan (12A) (Ukraine/Netherlands 2014) (Director: Sergi Loznitsa) (Ukrainian with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Wednesday 30.07.2015, 18:30

This is a documentary detailing events within the period of the 'Maidan' resistance in Ukraine from late 2013 to early 2014. 

The form of documentary was both unusual and familiar. There was no talking heads as has become the fashion with documentaries. Putting to one side the use of minimal title-cards to assist with minimal context, there was nothing added to the sound and vision captured by the camera (except the necessary subtitles for the non-Ukrainian audience). This causes the film to have a similar film to a 'Dogma '95' film, where the objective is to not add any (or minimal) artifice enabling the film to have a hyper-real quality. This might sound like an odd comment in regard to a documentary, though quickly consider the amount of documentaries you have seen which have had stirring music added, or other additives to manipulate. This assisted the film, although initially difficult to get into and requiring of full attention to engage with, to become a very immersive  and engrossing experience. 

This was a humbling and humane film which demonstrated real community, when a genuinely significant proportion of the populace felt they had no choice left but to use their collective might. 

I would recommend the film to folk, though it is likely to be hard to find at the cinema; the screening I was at was a one-off. I would envisage that this is the sort of film that is likely to be shown on BBC4 at some point and I don't think it would loose much by being seen on a television screen. I feel it is only fair to mention that the film is 2 and a 1/4 Hours and I am sure this would put some off from watching. Never the less, I had felt glad that I had seen it and feel more informed as a result. 

Rating: 09/10.